The University of California will establish the National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement in Washington, D.C., as part of a concerted educational, research and advocacy effort centered on the First Amendment’s critical importance to American democracy, UC President Janet Napolitano announced today (Oct. 26).

Berkeley and the making of Yosemite

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Yosemite National Park would be something quite different were it not for UC Berkeley.

That’s the blue-and-gold current flowing through "Yosemite: A Storied Landscape," a just-published e-book that brings to vivid life the California national park that inspires long strings of superlatives — most photographed, most climbed, most lived-in, most historic, most accessible, most inspiring — in celebration of its 150th birthday.

The book, published by the California Historical Society, also shows off the promise of digital books: Essays easily share space with slideshows (climbers, artworks, the terrain), videos (time-lapse video of the Rim Fire, rioting hippies), animations, information snippets (Ansel Adams wore the jester’s costume in the annual Christmas play), and side trips (what women should wear, and not, on the trail in the early 1900s).

Yosemite is the work of Kerry Tremain, the former California Magazine editor, current digital publisher, Berkeley resident and self-described fan of UC Berkeley. The book was published by the California Historical Society in conjunction with its current exhibit of Yosemite art and artifacts — including the skin of one of the park’s last grizzlies and the confession of its killer, both tied to Berkeley.

“I think Berkeley invented the park, in its current form,” says Tremain.